The Lumeris
The Lumeris are a society that revolves around trade, economic deals, economic growth, and doing business. Expansion and acquisition are the bywords of their culture, and as an amphibious people they are prepared to make money in any environment. Their society is organized around a series of families that have traditionally run different parts of their economy, and the balance of power and negotiations between the families is what drives progress - or blocks it. Lore The Lumeris are a society that revolves around trade, economic deals, economic growth, and doing business. Expansion and acquisition are the bywords of their culture, and as an amphibious people they are prepared to make money in any environment. Their society is organized around a series of families that have traditionally run different parts of their economy, and the balance of power and negotiations between the families is what drives progress - or blocks it. Leadership The Lumeris faction is also known as the Four Families as these four power blocs have been running the society from the shadows for many years. Traditional alignments are the Meos family running farms and agricultural products, the Omokar handling construction and union issues, the Lancellum building ships and ports, and the Arrakyo dealing in politics and legislation. The current leader is Jenestra Omalfi'Meos, voted by the Four Families. While infighting and backstabbing occur on a regular base in the interest of vengeance or profits, there is a consensus that the families must coordinate to take on the really big opportunity that is the galaxy. Homeworld Jenes, an atoll planet full of tropical islands and tropical storms, is the home of the Lumeris civilization and the home base of the Four Families that rule it from behind the scenes. Their oceanic environment necessitated the ability to adapt to the water, yet the need to create fire and build advanced technologies drove them to the land. From there they are now challenging the heavens themselves, bringing their unique style of economic development to an unsuspecting galaxy. Society Lumeris society has long been organized around families, clans, and dynasties - a natural outgrowth of the multinational, island-based history of their society. In the modern world this means that governments cannot stay in power without the support of the various families who have traditionally controlled different sectors of the economy and the lesser families that are part of their power structure. As a result, despite the growth and evolution of their civilization, family and lineage remains a strong pillar of their culture. With the aristocracy a distant memory and no dramatic religious fervor driving its populace, economic status is the only major legacy to be left for one's descendants. As a result Lumeris society revolves around trade; one seeks their career and passion in life in the interest of securing wealth for the future of their family and to improve one's standing within it. Mechanics The Lumeris are a fairly "vanilla" faction which mostly uses the core mechanics of ES2 factions, differentiating themselves mostly with some simple bonuses. They do have a few unique mechanics: Planet Brokers (colonization): The Lumeris have some odd twists on their colonization mechanic, which are covered in depth in the linked wiki page. The quick description is that although they still need to send "supply ships" of food to a outpost, the initial establishment of an outpost is done via a direct dust buyout rather than sending in a colony ship. Planet Brokers (trade): '''The Lumeris can also buy or sell outposts (i.e. colonies-in-progress) by negotiating with other empires. (It is worth noting the AI personality is reasonable about this, rather than stingy; it's a viable mechanic you can actually engage in with the AI.) '''Free Market Experts: The Lumeris get a 5% reduction in Dust Inflation per trading company they've activated; they can cap out at 4 trading companies, so this ends up being a 20% reduction. Dust Inflation (at the time of this writing) is a massively impactful mechanic, boosting the cost of buying things with by a couple orders of magnitude over the course of a game, and it's something that almost no factions have a means to reduce (outside of one endgame technology). This (and a few other cost reductions on buyout) makes buying out constructions with more of a "regular gameplay" option rather than a "special intervention" to jump-start a system or deal with a crisis. Traits Population Traits Political Traits Ships Lumeris ships tend to be fairly balanced, with a slight tendency towards extra Squadron slots. Colonizer The Lumeris do not have a colonizer ship. Outposts can be created on all unlocked planet types within vision. Once created, the outpost still goes through the normal intake process to reach full Colony status. This isn't shown as an action on the ship panel, but will show up if you view the planets in a system. Strategic Implications The Lumeris save a good deal of production (really relevant only in the early-game) by not having to build (and use up) colony ships. On the other hand, the tradeoff on this is that every early colonization effort hits your bank account during the point in the game where it's weakest. Because of this, you've got an extra incentive to invest in your economy, early. You can also decolonize for full refunds (scaling with the colonization price) at any point when the outpost/colony system is not under blockade and fully owned by you. Explorer Strategic Implications Can be outfitted as a fairly decent early-game fighter, due to a decent mix of defense, two attack slots, and an engine. Can only equip two utility slots, so it will be rather slow as far as exploration ships go. Attacker Strategic Implications 4 potential attack slots. 4 potential defense slots; though two of them have contention, and 3 potential engine slots, 2 of which have contention. The pain point on this ship is the contention; you're only able to realize it's full potential for fighting power if you sacrifice something else like engines, or vice-versa. Compared to something like the Riftborn attacker ship, you can match any particular one of its slot counts, but only by coming up short in some other area. Protector Strategic Implications 5 potential defense slots, only 2 potential attack slots (one of which contends with defense). 5 potential engine slots, but 2 of those contend with attack/defense. This ship isn't going to be good at offense, so although it has some flexibility, a great way to use this is in the "dedicated tank" role - with 5 defense modules to soak up fire, and perhaps a kinetic weapon to provide flak cover against missiles. Coordinator Strategic Implications This has a somewhat above-average number of squadron slots (3, one of which requires the upgrade) - the average is slightly below 3, the other ones with 3 are Horatio, Cravers, Unfallen, United Empire, and Vaulter (and the Vodyani have 4). 6 Utility slots means 6 engine slots, potentially. 6 potential defense slots. 4 potential offense slots. It's a fairly balanced ship; there's some loadout contention, but it doesn't have any standout weaknesses. Because of the high number of defense slots on a coordinator ship, it can serve as an excellent "tank" to soak up fire. Hunter Strategic Implications Carrier Strategic Implications 6 potential offensive slots (2 of which require the upgrade). Can field a total of 4 potential squadron modules (1 requires the upgrade). Can potentially equip 6 defense modules (one of which requires the upgrade). Can potentially equip a whopping 7 engines, which really means you've got spare room for utility modules. This is a fairly balanced ship, it has some contention between slots, but it's mostly between combat power vs. utility slots, not between attack and defense. Potential Unique Faction Quest Rewards Strategy Placeholder until a more elaborate strategy is contributed Lumeris are about two things: Generation, and buying out everything. With this in mind, rush Trade Companies as Lumeris have numerous bonuses to the practice (including ignoring Blockades, a powerful tool to keep trade going against an unaware opponent) Regarding the Final Chapter, Capitalist Frenzy is equivalent to an end-game technology for most other Empires, but if you are already on Tier 4 of the Economy and Trade tree, it might be better to avoid the option as Lumeris get a special 75% of converted into technology. Military Buyout is best for more casual play and gathering of resources in case your opponents are aggressive, but isn't always the best decision. Consider your current situation before deciding. Category:Factions